'Dangerous' Text Book Worries Parents

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Concerned parents are worried that a 3rd grade textbook is indoctrinating their children with left-leaning political values.

They raised their concerns at a meeting of the Frederick school board's curriculum committee.

"It's like a field guide for a community organizer," Kristen Eddins of New Market said at the meeting, according to the Gazette.

The text book in question, "Social Studies Alive!," has been a part of the Frederick County School system's curriculum for 3rd graders since 2004, the Gazette reported.

Another parent said the book is un-American.

"I started reading it and the more I read it, the angrier I got," Cindy Rose, a parent with an 8-year-old in the school system, told Glenn Beck in April. "The chapters are about indoctrination, minimalizing anything that has to do with America, talks about the protesting the global activism."

Parents have singled out portions of the text relating to public education and health care that they find inappropriate. The book says that paying for health care can place financial stress on families, and points to Denmark as a country with state-sponsored health care. However, the book does not make clear that public health care is paid for by tax money raised from citizens. In another section, the text book says that parents do not pay to send students to public school, but leaves out a mention about taxes that pay for public education.

A school administrator in charge of the social studies curriculum said the book was one of over 15 sources used in the school system's social studies curriculum, and that no lesson was drawn completely from any one text.

Members of the board sympathized with the parents' concerns. "I don't want it to look like we are social engineering," Board member Kathryn B. Groth said, according to the Gazette. "And I don't want it to look like we are community organizing."

However, no plans for action on the text book came out of the meeting.

Cindy Rose has vowed to take her concerns to the school board president.